998 characters mini-essay

I personally support lights-out at 2AM policy in KMLA.

When it becomes 2AM, all the electricity is cut off in dormitories except for the bathroom. But this policy should be abolished or at least modified, as it is neither helpful nor practical. Often there are so much to do that students need to stay up the night. Bright lights are very helpful when one is trying to stay up all night studying. Students should have the right to choose. I believe schools should not just tell us when to sleep. Sometimes students can sleep early, sometimes that can stay up all night. A school not granting students the right to study should not exist.

And the lights-out policy does not really make students sleep, only more painful. Students study in bathrooms, where the lights are always on, and many have light bulbs that run on battery, so students can stay awake if they want to. If they are going to stay awake anyway, the school should help students study by providing proper light and internet connection.

Time Travel: UChicago

Prompt #5: In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun.

Time Travel

                Is it possible to travel through time? Time travel has been one of the most popular themes in Science Fiction. Going to the future is easy; we are all doing that just now, in the rate of one second per one second. All we need to do is making the rate faster. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, we can do exactly that by approaching the speed of light, and we would be able to travel to the future. Going to the past is a little bit trickier. Hopefully, Einstein’s field equations do not explicitly forbid time travel to the past: there are situations in which time travel to the past is possible. But that leads us to think what would happen if we had time travel. Such as the famous grandfather paradox: what would happen if I killed my past self (or my ancestor)? Will I be able to even perform the act?

                The most convenient solution to this paradox is the parallel universe hypothesis. This hypothesis states that as I travel back to the past, I move into not only a different era but also a different universe that would have different consequences. But because the definition of parallel universes is that they are exactly the same with the current universe before the moment of time travel, the parallel universe me is ready to time travel into another parallel universe as I get ready to travel into the parallel universe. This means whatever I will have done in the parallel universe, the outcome must be the same with my original universe and the two universes must be undistinguishable. Therefore, I am forced to conclude that another me had traveled from another parallel universe to the past of my original universe, and therefore this hypothesis does not really solve any paradoxes. If I killed past me in a parallel universe, someone should have killed me in the past-that someone being me from another parallel universe.

                Another solution is to accept the deterministic nature of time travel. If I go back to the past and attempt to kill myself, I will fail, as I am a living proof of it. I have survived attempted murders from myself in the past, or I will not even exist. This is interesting considering that I know every move the past me will make, but still fail to kill myself. But this hypothesis also has a serious problem: quantum mechanics. Although in the macroscopic world the universe seems to be governed by Newtonian, deterministic laws, actually we live in a quantum world where one can only predict the probabilities of something happening, and never the actual event. But consider this situation: I conduct a quantum mechanics experiment, and the future me gives me the data to the experiment even before I start the experiment. If my experiment runs exactly as the data, quantum mechanics, not deterministic by nature, will be proven deterministic, which would mean the collapse of physics as we know it. But if the data and my experiment do not match, this hypothesis about time travel is wrong.

                I have not been able to conclude what would happen if time travel to the past existed. It is surprising to see a phenomenon predicted by the equation that most accurately depicts space and time in the history of mankind has so many paradoxes that cannot be easily solved.

Emotion and Logic - Earthlings essay rewritten

                    The documentary video <Earthlings> is about how we humans abuse animals and how our wants and needs for animals should be seriously reconsidered. The video contains footage of animals being hit, whipped, slit in the throat, skinned alive, and confined in small places. Along with uncensored cruelty of humans against other animals, the intense music magnifies the emotional effects. My opinion, however, is that the video focused too much on the emotional and psychological effects compared to its lack of logic and consistency.

According to the film, all earthlings are equal. Then what about the bacteria and viruses that infect us? Is it "species-discriminatory" to kill them just that we could live?

                   The video begins with defining the term “earthling.” It says the term is not species-discriminatory, and that the term contrasts with the fact that humans are greatly abusing other species on this planet. However, <Earthlings> uses species-discriminatory methods throughout the film. In the video, it is mentioned many times that animals have the same mechanism for receiving pain as that of humans’, and that is why we should sympathize with them. This shows both the inconsistency in logic the video commits and the excessive focus on the mere psychological effects. The video deliberately chose animals that have similarity with humans because that way it could easily arouse dramatic emotions. We would not feel as compassionate for insects being crushed or trees being burned than we would for dolphins and pigs being slaughtered ruthlessly. The video sometimes depicts rather acceptable treatment as abominable. For example, the video shows the footage of pigs being slit in the throat, which I believe is extremely natural way to kill. A lion does not use anesthesia when it hunts deer, so why should we? Slitting the throat is not exactly what one would call prolonging the animal’s pain unnecessarily.

                Not only is the video focused excessively on psychological effects rather than logic and information, but it also is unclear in its motive. It seems the video is focused more on the pain animals suffer than the environmentally harmful effects or the outcome of the ecosystem. Concentrating on the pain of animals, the video seems to neglect the pain of humans caused by the system. For example, the video explains how cows are brutally treated in India. I believe the people who are moving the cows are in great poverty and pain too, not to mention that the inefficient and immoral system is the cause of this phenomenon. Then what is the motive for making this video? Does it just want us to feel the animals’ pain rather than to think about what is the cause of all this and suggest a solution? The problem with <Earthlings> is that it does not really have a “crux”: it is just a list of animals in pain.

Animal Rights?

                I would further like to counter directly logic of the <Earthlings>. As cruel it may sound, animal rights do not exist. It is natural for some species of animal to use other species of animal for its own purpose. For example, lions hunt deers and roundworms parasite people. It is generous of us to show mercy to animals, but it is not wrong to “mistreat” them, as the consensus that it is morally wrong to use them to our benefit was never established. I do not recommend people to kill animals for fun or to cause them excessive and unnecessary pain, but I do believe that meat-eating is not to blame. The film shows some gruesome events that take place in slaughterhouses, and I believe the government should intervene and provide some minimal standards; I do not, however, think we should view the slaughterhouses as moral decadence of the era.

                The film also attacks animal experimentation. The film says “Those who hope to find remedies for human ills by inflicting deliberate sufferings on animals commit two fundamental errors in understanding. The first is the assumption that results obtained on animals are applicable to mankind.” It is true that human beings are not equal to animals and therefore medical experiments on animals are sometimes misleading. However, the human body is also strikingly similar to other animals in many ways and medical experiments are conducted to detect errors that occur in those similarities. How can we conduct medical experiments without animal experimentation? The director of the film himself might have died before reaching adulthood if it were not the great amount of medical research scientists have accumulated via animal experimentation.

                I do believe <Earthlings> is very smartly made. It evokes sympathy for animals and appeals to emotion extremely well. But that is also the flaw of the documentary. It focuses excessively on psychological effects and not on logic and information. It also provides no solution or objective, and its logic is unreasonable. <Earthlings> succeeded in showing us how we treat animals, and we should change some parts of it, but the documentary is perhaps too one-sided and biased to tell us logically. Maybe its extreme bias makes us think about the matter, and in that aspect the film is meaningful.

The endgame: Ben X review

     I believe all of us thought about killing ourselves at least once in our lives. Not as a serious consideration, but as one of the countless notions that pass through our brains some time. Just to send a message to all the people who offended me, who neglected my pain, and who laughed at my tears. Just to make them feel guilty. But I know that is no good enough reason to give up my life, especially when my experience is not quite severe enough to be truly depressing. Ben succeeds in sending this message without actually taking his life, by faking his suicide. When the people realize how horrible the things Ben has gone through, Ben rises, showing himself. Now that was cool.

     I really liked the film <Ben X> because it is quite different from other films that it is more unpredictable and that it focuses on the individual. It is more like a drama rather than a documentary. It shows how an individual suffering from autism and bullying overcome those difficulties. One of the criticisms I have heard about the movie was that it focuses on too many issues that it loses its focus. I don't think this is true. Just that the independent issues can be discussed in a whole film does not mean every film has to do so. I believe the film does a very good job in describing how many social problems are actually connected. Not all bullied kids are autistic, nor do they all are addicted to computer games. But it shows why kids are addicted to computer games, like how kids who do not have a satisfying, socially respected status, such as being a bullied student, hope to find high levels in the cyber world. But the real focus is experiencing the world in Ben's perspective, trying to understand bullied and diffident people. 

     The narrating of Ben really helped in understanding Ben. When you just hear his narration, you think he is just a normal person, with no apparent flaw. I think this really helps to understand autism; Ben laughs at doctors who say "Ben is not retarded. He is special." as he knows the word "special" actually just means "retarded." But Ben is not retarded. He just developed a complex that anyone would develop if he was bullied that badly. I like this film because unlike other films that usually depict bullied kids as unchanging and helpless, <Ben X> describes how the mind of Ben is actually quite normal. Moreover, it depicts a story about how he overcomes his problems.

     And I think the movie was able to give a rather unexpected conclusion with no unnatural stories. I think it was pretty obvious that the girl Scarlet was going to be important to Ben. It turned out later that she is imaginary after some point, but that was even better. It means Ben was able to overcome all his problems by himself in reality. He overcame his complex and he also made others feel sorry for him, in a believable way. As he saw people now understood him, he rose and showed his proud self. His endgame. (I think these game metaphors were nice. They were humorous in a way that Ben was extremely skilled in games but not in real life. We all laughed when Scarlet said, "Ben, you're level 80!")

     <Ben X> has a great effect on us not just thinking, but understanding what problems are society has. Through a fairy tale-like story of a hero rising from diffidence, <Ben X> gives us a happy ending story about dealing with autism. And you have to admit that the scene Ben rises is awesome.

10 Flash Fictions

Totally new 10 flash fictions.


1. Batman: Why didn't you just...... kill me?
Bane: Your punishment must be more severe: I have installed electricity in this isolated prison by building a power plant and cable so the television could have proper reception, instead of just giving you a radio set. Now you could watch TV and see your city die in HD!

2. "You don't want to live?"
"There is a subtle difference between people who want to die and those who don't want to live."

3. "The books we carry are heavy."
"They should be. They are weighted with responsibility."
(parody of <The Crucible>)

4. Caveman 1: Look guys! I've discovered something called fire-it should be the most important discovery of mankind!
Caveman 2: Oh, you're cute. Did you forget who invented language yesterday?

5. Hitler could not have been that bad. I mean, he killed Hitler. But he also killed the man who killed Hitler, so I guess he is actually just pure evil.

6. "The laws of physics tell me that cramming 30 people in the elevator might give us a first-hand experience of a free fall motion."
"The laws of physics tell me that my legs will hurt like hell if I walked up to the cafeteria. And I guess uncertain death is better than certain suffering."

7. There are things you cannot stop. A 5t-truck running towards you in 60km/h, for example.

8. Where is everyone? What time is i..... OH MY GOD.

9. "Prisoner number 4682, although you have been sentenced for life, if you volunteer for this experiment and survive you will be freed."
"What is the experiment?"
"You attempt to escape this well secured and fully armed prison. Hahahahaha!"

10. There wasn't any holes in the boat when I checked the last time, which was before I brought myself to the surface of the deepest part of the lake.

6 Flash Fictions

1-2 sentences flash fictions I wrote in class today.


1. What? You forgot your lightsaber?

2. "Doctor Brown, what would happen if I went to 1955 on the time machine and kill you?"
"Great Scott, Marty!"

3. "Am I dead?"
"Not yet."

4. Welcome to heaven: Christians not allowed.

5. Hello, earthlings. We do not come in peace.

6. You are now entering a NON-WI-FI ZONE.

Ben X

This movie deals with two issues at once: autism and addiction to computer games. Ben, who suffers from autism, seeks escape from reality by playing computer games. What surprised me about Ben is that he was capable of communicating, although not effectively. The autistic people I saw on TV were hardly capable of normally communicating except through their own talents, such as playing the piano. But Ben communicates as well as any other people on the Internet when he is chatting with the girl, being able to hide his identity on the Internet. And unlike my expectation that autistic people will not be good at standardized tests, it is mentioned in the film that Ben has excellent grades. He just might be an extremely shy person and not autistic-he could be just labeled as autistic by doctors. I think it is possible for Ben to overcome his shyness and live a normal life, but judging from what Ben's mom said, something tragic happened. I like the movie so far and I have high expectations about its ending.